Work-in-progress substrate processing methods and systems for use in the fabrication of integrated circuits

A method for fabricating semiconductors utilizing a semiconductor fabrication system, the method comprising:

• performing a semiconductor fabrication process on a first lot of unprocessed semiconductor substrates with a first semiconductor fabrication equipment unit to form a first lot of processed substrates;
• communicating processing data regarding the first lot of processed substrates from the first semiconductor fabrication equipment unit to a just-in-time (JIT) module of the semiconductor fabrication system;
• determining a processing priority of the first lot of processed substrates and a processing priority of a second lot of unprocessed substrates at the JIT module;
• and
• scheduling removal of the first lot of processed substrates from the semiconductor fabrication equipment unit, delivering the first lot of processed substrates to a second semiconductor fabrication equipment unit, and delivering the second lot of unprocessed substrates to the second semiconductor fabrication equipment unit, wherein the first lot of processed substrates and the second lot of unprocessed substrates are delivered to a local storage device of the second semiconductor fabrication equipment unit and are placed in a queue therein in a particular sequence by the JIT module based on the processing data and the priority of one or both of the first lot of processed substrates and the second lot of unprocessed substrates;
• and
• using a universal optimization system, reordering the sequence of either or both of the first lot of processed substrates and the second lot of unprocessed substrates in the queue such that the second semiconductor fabrication equipment unit will process the first and second lots in an order different than an original order previously dictated by the JIT module.